21 ms·

It would be true, if in practice all the finances of Mozilla didn't come from Google. So it's like Google wearing a mask.

by rvnx 3y ago

usefulcat 3y ago
Don't let perfect be the enemy of good.
dathinab 3y ago
sure, except that Google has pretty much no control over firefox Saying Firefox is Google wearing a mask is some wild conspiracy theory.
goda90 3y ago
Google has an interest in not looking like an all controlling monopoly. I doubt they'd want to risk that by coercing Mozilla too much.
Pawka 3y ago
Google is paying because Firefox is popular. It is a chicken & egg problem.
- kijin 3y ago
  Google is paying because if they didn't, Microsoft or somebody else might.
  - deprecative 3y ago
    Google is paying to get / retain market share. Google is also paying to prevent antitrust suits.
bryanlarsen 3y ago
Regardless of funding, it's still an independently developed browser engine.
Dennip 3y ago
I suspect they also want to avoid monopoly regulation noises. "hey look, this competitor exists"
dralley 3y ago
Oh look, it's my least favorite HN trope. Comment A) "Screw Mozilla, all their funding comes from their Google Search deal, they're just Google in a mask" Comment B) "Screw Mozilla, they waste all this money on side projects (that would provide diversification and non-Google revenue streams) when they should be spending all of their effort on Firefox (which is effectively un-monetizable apart from the search deal - and you can bet hard money that there would be screaming if they tried)"
- dingnuts 3y ago
  no, the criticism of their side projects is NOT that they would provide diversification, it's that they're usually politically motivated feel-good marketing distractions with no chance of ever producing additional revenue except maybe by bringing users to Firefox by convincing them that Mozilla better-aligns with their worldview or whatever except oops all corporate politics are the same so the politically motivated feel-good crap from Mozilla is exactly the same as the politically motivated feel-good crap from every other corporation and so it's all just a waste of time and money and effort that COULD as you put it "provide diversification" instead, if Mozilla was competently run
  - dathinab 3y ago
    > that they're usually politically motivated feel-good marketing distractions most of them where not especially if you look at resource distributions Like tab containers, browser sync, firefox SSO, VR, FirefoxOs, Pocket, the send file thing, relay, VPN, privacy preserving Translation, TTS, reader mode, pdf.js. Non of them are "politically motivated feel-good marketing distractions" but bets to diversification (which also mostly failed for one reason or another) (and yes Pocket contains political motivated nonsens in it's recommendation system, but by itself isn't a politically motivated features, but a feature I would want to see more of deeper integrated into FF, just REALLY without the recommendation system and a somehow more natural part-of-FF felling UI/UX). I mean sure that color theme nonsense was politically motivated feel-good nonsense. But using that as point to get hung up on is exactly what the OP comment meant, people tend to be very selective about remembering things so that they fit their narrative.

It would be true, if in practice all the finances of Mozilla didn't come from Google. So it's like Google wearing a mask.

by rvnx 3y ago

It would be true, if in practice all the finances of Mozilla didn't come from Google. So it's like Google wearing a mask.

usefulcat 3y ago

Don't let perfect be the enemy of good.

dathinab 3y ago

sure, except that Google has pretty much no control over firefox Saying Firefox is Google wearing a mask is some wild conspiracy theory.

goda90 3y ago

Google has an interest in not looking like an all controlling monopoly. I doubt they'd want to risk that by coercing Mozilla too much.

Pawka 3y ago

Google is paying because Firefox is popular. It is a chicken & egg problem.

kijin 3y ago
Google is paying because if they didn't, Microsoft or somebody else might.
- deprecative 3y ago
  Google is paying to get / retain market share. Google is also paying to prevent antitrust suits.

bryanlarsen 3y ago

Regardless of funding, it's still an independently developed browser engine.

Dennip 3y ago

I suspect they also want to avoid monopoly regulation noises. "hey look, this competitor exists"

dralley 3y ago

Oh look, it's my least favorite HN trope. Comment A) "Screw Mozilla, all their funding comes from their Google Search deal, they're just Google in a mask" Comment B) "Screw Mozilla, they waste all this money on side projects (that would provide diversification and non-Google revenue streams) when they should be spending all of their effort on Firefox (which is effectively un-monetizable apart from the search deal - and you can bet hard money that there would be screaming if they tried)"

dingnuts 3y ago
no, the criticism of their side projects is NOT that they would provide diversification, it's that they're usually politically motivated feel-good marketing distractions with no chance of ever producing additional revenue except maybe by bringing users to Firefox by convincing them that Mozilla better-aligns with their worldview or whatever except oops all corporate politics are the same so the politically motivated feel-good crap from Mozilla is exactly the same as the politically motivated feel-good crap from every other corporation and so it's all just a waste of time and money and effort that COULD as you put it "provide diversification" instead, if Mozilla was competently run
- dathinab 3y ago
  > that they're usually politically motivated feel-good marketing distractions most of them where not especially if you look at resource distributions Like tab containers, browser sync, firefox SSO, VR, FirefoxOs, Pocket, the send file thing, relay, VPN, privacy preserving Translation, TTS, reader mode, pdf.js. Non of them are "politically motivated feel-good marketing distractions" but bets to diversification (which also mostly failed for one reason or another) (and yes Pocket contains political motivated nonsens in it's recommendation system, but by itself isn't a politically motivated features, but a feature I would want to see more of deeper integrated into FF, just REALLY without the recommendation system and a somehow more natural part-of-FF felling UI/UX). I mean sure that color theme nonsense was politically motivated feel-good nonsense. But using that as point to get hung up on is exactly what the OP comment meant, people tend to be very selective about remembering things so that they fit their narrative.